autumn has come now
yet unchanged in hue remains
Mount Tokiwa still—
so the wind must borrow leaves
of scarlet from distant hills

Meaning

Autumn has come, yet on Mount Tokiwa the leaves remain unchanged in color; the wind must be borrowing autumn foliage from other mountains.

Commentary

Book Seven Felicitations

An autumn poem among those written on a screen painted with scenes of the four seasons, at the fortieth-year celebration banquet of Fujiwara no Sadakuni, composed by the Naishi-no-Kami.

Mount Tokiwa evokes the evergreen pine through the word “tokiwagi” (evergreen tree), giving the poem an additional meaning of enduring longevity appropriate to a felicitations poem. In reality, some trees upon the mountain do turn color, but the poet playfully imagines that the wind has carried autumn leaves from other mountains and lent them to Tokiwa.

Author

Sakanoue no Koreyuki

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

through Suminoe pines the autumn wind begins to blow— and with added sound the white waves off the open sea rise and join their voices too
the plovers are calling mist rises on the Saho River— it must be so now even the leaves upon the hills grow deeper in their autumn hues

autumn has come now yet unchanged in hue remains Mount Tokiwa still— so the wind must borrow leaves of scarlet from distant hills

autumn has come now
yet unchanged in hue remains
Mount Tokiwa still—
so the wind must borrow leaves
of scarlet from distant hills